The blacktop and dotted lines disappeared beneath the hungry grill of the four-wheel drive pickup, as itsped along the twisting highway. Sun drenched Ponderosa pines smothering the hillsides, stood silentlyobserving, as the serene wilderness suddenly transformed into a war zone. Fifty calibre slugs blastedfrom the machine guns of the military chopper, causing aggravated columns of dust and pavement toburst into the air on either side of the vehicle. The aircraft quickly over took its target, banking hardahead of its prey, to launch another attack.

The pickup veered onto a dirt side road, as a huge billowing dust trail erupted behind it. The helicopterengaged a slow hovering pursuit of its quarry, weaving back and forth overhead. The dust trail slowlyoozed from the top of the forest canopy, gradually betraying the pickups direction.
“Alpha Leader, this is Predator One,” the copilot said into his mouthpiece. “We have intercepted thetarget and they have left the highway at Crystal Canyon.”

“Roger, Predator One,” came the response, “seek and destroy, seek and destroy.”

“Affirmative, Alpha Leader,” he replied.

“Where are the bastards?” the pilot growled, his smoked visor hiding the frustration in his eyes.

“There’s only one way in and one way out,” the copilot responded with a grin, “they aren’t getting pastus.”

“Yeah but they had dirt bikes in the back, in case you didn’t notice,” the pilot said.

“Well come on fly boy let’s flush them out,” the copilot responded, pointing to the sidewinder rocketbutton on the control stick.

They maintained a tail kick hovering motion, allowing the pilots a picture window view into the forestfrom the cockpit.

“Damn these trees are so thick, and the pickup would have to be dull green,” the pilot cursed.

“Yeah, they probably stopped under a grove, because I’m not seeing much dust anymore,” the copilotresponded.

“How the hell did they find us?” Sandra said, her green eye’s fraught with tension, as she peeked up atthe helicopter, from under a large branch.

“I don’t know but let’s get these bikes unloaded,” Mack said, as he climbed into the back and beganundoing the ropes.

Sandra dug through a duffel bag from the cab of the truck. Tying her long red hair into a ponytail, sheslipped from her cutoffs, exposing her firm half-naked body.

“Here,” she said, tossing Mack a long sleeved shirt from the bag, as she pulled on a pair of over sizedblue jeans. “It’s all we have to protect us from getting scratched to death in the brush.”

“You ever ride one of these bikes before?” he asked.

“I rode my brothers when I was a kid,” she said.

“Hope ya remember how,” Mack said, slipping the undersized shirt over his muscular frame.A glint of sunlight on the truck windshield betrayed their hiding spot to chopper, as the two dirt bikessimultaneously barked to life.

They hovered above the carnage, their rotor blades fanning the thick black smoke and flames, creatinga dust storm which boiled through the forest.

“Can you see if the bikes are still there?”

“I can’t see a damn thing, but call in the coordinates. A ground crew will have to confirm the kill,” thepilot said, as they circled the area briefly before departing.

“Good they’re gone,” Mack said, stepping from the patch of lush green bushes.Sandra spilled out of the bush, pulling twigs and leaves from her hair.

“That was a little too close,” she gasped.”
“Well at least we escaped for now.”

“So now what?” Sandra asked.

“Well according to this map there are three small towns, but I like the one in that direction,” he said,pointing east. “Are you ready to give these bikes a try again?”

“Well I guess we don’t really have much choice do we,” she said.

A black suburban with smoked out windows drove through the clusters of emergency vehicles and firefighting personal, that now had the small forest fire under control.

It approached the burned out pickup, which sat still smouldering amidst the smoke, ashes and burnttrees. Two men stepped from the suburban, one fat older man, and a much younger good-looking one.Both wore mirrored sunglasses and the matching black suits and ties, personifying them as governmentagents.

“Our chopper boys nailed the target, but no dirt bikes. That means they escaped damn it,” Carter barkedinto his walkie-talkie. He approached the burned out truck rubbing the sweat off his balled head, as hetucked his shirt in over his fat belly.

“We can dispatch a couple of bike units. But it will be several hours,” came the crackling reply.
“Forget it, they will be long gone by then,” he said, clipping his radio to his belt with frustration. Thetwo men quickly climbed back in the suburban and began to leave.

“Looks like the freaks got away again hey chief,” his assistant David Briton said. His youthful looksand sculptured brown hair shining in the sunlight, that infiltrated the tint of the windows.

“Mark my words Briton I’ll get them,” Carter said, lighting one of his huge cigars to the obviousdiscomfort of Briton.

Mack and Sandra pulled up near the edge of the bluff. The scent of the pine needle carpet of the forest,radiated upward from the unrelenting heat of the sun. Silence consumed their surroundings, as theyshut off the pair of cackling dirt bikes. They left them under cover of the trees and approached the edge.Below them in the valley lay a small community, between the steep tree covered hillsides surroundingit. A small river meandered through the settlement. carving a snaking path between the lust green trees,colourful buildings and sleepy streets.

“We may as well continue on foot,” Mack said, “the bikes will only bring unnecessary attention to us.”
“Darn, I was just getting the hang of it,” Sandra smiled, pulling up her baggy pants, “I’m going to needyour belt,” she said.

“Yes, we are going to need a vehicle and some proper sized cloths,” he said, as he took off the tightshirt and handed her his belt.

“Well let’s go,” she said, tightening the belt.

“Three different towns they could go to,” Carter said, crumpling up the map. “Briton, get me sometopographical maps, I need to see the terrain.”

“I’m on it chief,” Briton said, as he rushed to the waiting helicopter.

“So you are the local law enforcement,” Carter said, to the sheriff.

“You bet I am sir, Captain Rollins,” the young officer replied, extending a hand, which Carterdismissed.

“Any guesses as to which direction they may have gone?”

“No, like you said, three different valleys and three different towns. They could have chosen any one ofthem. But Westborn that’s my jurisdiction... I’d say it’s the most likely by dirt bike.”
“Well thanks for your help,” Carter said, slamming his door and abandoning the officer in a cloud ofdust, as he accelerated away from the rest area.

Mack and Sandra approached the back yard of a house. The clothesline held a good assortment ofclothes, despite Sandra's disapproving look of the owners sense of fashion.

“Damn it, I wish we had had the time to grab our stuff, before they busted into our campsite,” Macksaid.

“Me too,” Sandra said “I still can’t believe they found us, I thought camping was a brilliant way for usto hide.”

“Yes they are very persistent there is no doubt about that,” Mack replied, “get us some clothes. I’llcheck the house, hopefully there will be nobody home.”

Mack tried the back door and was pleased to find it open. He motioned Sandra to come inside.

“My god, I’m starving,” Sandra said, as she went straight for the fridge. “What are we going to do andwhere can we hide from these people?”

“I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time, unless we can tell someone or everyone,” Mack said, as shehanded him half of a sandwich she had found in the fridge.

The cocking of a double barrel shotgun took the two by surprise, as Sandra yelped and dropped hersandwich.

“You’re eating my lunch,” the elderly man in a wheel chair said, waving the gun back and forthbetween the two.

“Martha it’s safe, I got the drop on them... come on in.”

A thin elderly woman, apprehensively hobbled into the kitchen.
“Call the police,” the old man said to his wife.

“No please, you have to listen to us,” Sandra said, as she stepped in front of Mack.

“Don’t
be doing that young lady,” the man said, “I ain’t
never shot a girl, but that don’t mean I won’t.”
“It’s not worth it Sandra, they will never believe us anyway,” Mack said.

“Anyway we discovered it and it is huge. It is a dough nut shaped halo kind of image and it is over twohundred and seventy million light years across,” Sandra explained.

“Can you appreciate what she is saying here George?” Mack interrupted again, “the speed of light isover one hundred and eighty six thousand miles per second. And in order for a beam of light to crossthe width of it, would take two hundred and seventy million years... give or take a few. To put that inperspective it’s twenty seven hundred times bigger than our own milk way Galaxy, which contains overtwo hundred billion stars alone.

“My goodness, that is very large,” Martha said, “but what does that have to do with you breaking intoour home?” she asked.

“I’ll get to that,” Sandra said,

“We studied it for years from the Mauna Kea observatory in Hawaii. Wewere very confused because it’s so big. It’s like entire galaxies are stuck in it like flies in a spider web.It appeared to have a gravitational field so powerful it could bend light, and not just a little light, but allthe light from an entire Galaxy or several of them.So when we looked at it, it was like the light was being twisted and we were seeing images of the samegalaxies reflecting through from different areas.We termed it a “lensing effect,” because the light was acting like it was passing through an invisiblelens.

“Almost like a reflection…, I saw something about that on the learning channel,” Martha said, noddingat George.

“Yes, a reflection is what we believed. But we were still very puzzled at first, because we could onlyview it indirectly. We attributed it to the twisting of the light. But new equipment and a computerprogram that Mack invented, has finally given us a clear indisputable view.

“Get on with this hog wash,” George said.

“I assure you George what she is saying is not hogwash,” Mack said, “long story short George, we toldyou it was a dough nut shaped halo type image.”

“Yeah I’m not dense, you told us that.”

“I don’t know how to say this any other way George, but it’s the reason we are being hunted by theentire United States government.”

“Well hell, if the entire government is looking for you...then there should be one hell of a reward,”George cackled, looking at his wife.

Mack seized the opportunity, to snatch the gun away from the old man.

George and Martha stared on in horror. Mack unloaded the gun and leaned it in the corner.

“Don't worry you are perfectly safe, we will not harm you in anyway,” Mack said, “but you have tolisten to what we are telling you.”

“ We need your help…, please,” Sandra said, “we may not live to see tomorrow... hell we may noteven make it through today. But we have made a very disturbing discovery that will change mankind’sperspective and realistically every living beings life and future forever.”

“My
goodness dear, what could you have discovered out there in the stars,
that could have such an effect on the world?” Much less, make our
government want to kill you?” Martha asked, sympathetically.

The phone rang in the office, starling the officer and causing him to spill his coffee.

Westburn sheriffs office, Captain Rollins speaking... how can I help you?”

“This is George Baxter,... two crazies, a man and a woman just broke into our house and stole our car.You know it Rollins, it’s our blue Pontiac. They’re headed east on highway six, and hurry... theirgetting away.”

“I’m on it George,” Rollins said, as he hung up and called Carter.

“I got those communist spying bastards you’ve been looking for,” Rollins said, as Carter made awhirling motion with his finger to signal Briton to get the chopper running.

“Highway six, light blue late model Pontiac, I’ll see you get a promotion for this Rollins,” Carter saidas he hung up, and joined Briton and the pilots in the readied chopper.

Within seconds they lifted off, as Carter and Briton high-fived each other and the pilots.

On a desolate part of the highway the blue Pontiac exited a tight corner onto a straight stretch. Themilitary chopper hovered less than two hundred yards ahead of it, in the middle of the road. The carbraked slightly as the sidewinder rockets launched. In a millisecond the faint smoke trails from therockets erupted into a huge fireball, virtually vaporizing the vehicle. The smouldering wreckagecatapulted into the air and rolled into the ditch.

“I can’t believe they did that. They’re such a wonderful old couple,” Mack said, as he started Georgesold truck.

“Maybe part of it was once we told them the truth, they figured it didn’t really matter anymore “Ormaybe it was because they felt their only son died needlessly for the government, in that Iraq war,”Sandra said.

“Yeah, I guess aside from their son, they really had no other family. But one thing I know for sureSandra, is they put themselves in harms way, so we could escape and throw the government off ourtrail. We owe it to them and the rest of the world. Everyone deserves to know the truth.”

“But I’m beginning to think maybe we should just keep it to ourselves,” Sandra said. “Besides does theworld really need to know? I mean everything we’ve ever believed in, our whole existence, our entireuniverse and our perception of life for that matter. To have it all suddenly reduced to the fact that thedough nut shaped halo image we can finally see, is actually an eye. Most people won't even believe oraccept, that we are nothing more than something under the lens of someone or somethings microscope.
“We may be that insignificant,” Mack said, “but I think mankind has a right to know.”
“I hope you’re right. But we had better get going, before they figure out that was George and Martha intheir car and not us,” Sandra said, as they drove off into the starlit night.

(Unless youtype
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